Walter must learn to intervene
Flames coach Kinnah Phiri left for Tanzania during the week en route to Kenya for the 2014 World Cup qualifier with a squad which has created a false impression that he has taken a drastic step.
Some are under grand illusions that Kinnah has finally realised the meaning of meritocracy and struck a balance between home and foreign based players (10 each). I choose to differ.
When you go for mangoes due to unavailability of your preferred fruits of apples, it would be faulty to call that a change in taste.
Likewise, in the absence of the players he over trusts, Kinnah really had no choice. I would not rush into celebrating that Kinnah has finally realised that blind faith in the foreign legion is costly.
In my opinion, there is no way home-based players can dominate the Flames final squad if the overrated foreign legion, especially from South Africa, is in. Form has never been the players’ selection benchmark in Flames.
My slim hope is that FAM president Walter Nyamilandu, having played football at the highest domestic level, will learn from recent outstanding cases of intervention.
His Football Association of Zambia counterpart Kalusha Bwalya proved that he is as good in the football boardroom as he was on the pitch.
Great Kalu moved in swiftly to fire Italian Dario Bonetti, who had secured Africa Cup of Nations qualification with a near perfect record, and recalled Frenchman Renard Herve to lead the Chipolopolo. It was a Midas touch!
Bwalya looked at the bigger picture. He was simply not impressed with the manner of Chipolopolo’s qualification.
He took the bold step during the same time FAM and many misguided Malawians were busy celebrating that the Flames had made a record in failing to qualify to the Nations Cup finals without a loss.
Another example of intervention occurred in South Africa recently. Orlando Pirates supremo Dr Irvin Khoza hoisted the Absa Premier League gold for the second consecutive season due to his timely firing of Brazilian Julio Leal Ceasar for Augosto Palacio.
And if your football temple is at the Stamford Bridge, you should be thankful that Russian owner Roman Abramovich’s impatience with Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea was, for a change, for right reasons.
Chelsea would have been relegated if the Russian billionaire had not replaced the Portuguese with Italian Roberto di Matteo.
Looking at these examples it is clear that Zambia and Pirates’ management were on top of things. Looking at several cases in Malawi, especially at FAM, one is left with a final analysis that friendship matters more to Nyamilandu when it comes to his treatment of Kinnah and his technical team.
I am not implying that Nyamilandu must fire Kinnah, but the FAM chief must learn to stop some senseless decisions which Kinnah sometimes makes like going for a 4-5-1 formation against China Under-22, putting faith in players who are inactive and threatening that he will not pick clubless players only to select them..again and again etc.
